The Labyrinth *editing*

Chapter 14

The sweet air of the seashore rushed into my nose, and the first bit of sun glinted off the water as it started to rise from out of the sea itself. Morning birds began to wake up as I did, and sang softly as they did. I almost enjoyed myself for a moment. Almost. Before I remembered where I was, what I was doing, and all the horrors that had taken place in the previous night. My spirits, which had been uplifted shortly before, were now crashing back down into the deepest depths of Tartaraus, right back to where I had left them before I fell asleep. I looked around, bleary-eyed. The other Athenians were all huddled around a pile of wood a few feet away, which was evidently meant to be a fire, but had obviously not been set to flame at all. Either they had not been able to get a spark, or they just felt they had had too much fire to last one night. I was glad they had not lit the fire, because we all still had images of burning ships, chitons setting on fire, hair getting singed, plunging into the ocean deep, and drowning people permanently implanted in the backs of our eyelids. The ash had been washed ashore by the waves, and lay in a jagged line where the waves had reached farthest. They brought back a stinging, sharp scent of burning wood into my nose. Or maybe it was my hair, which still smelled heavily like smoke along with my clothing, and ash still clung to under my fingernails. They were dusty and black, something that I suspected came from the black sand rather than the ashes. My hair was a rat’s nest- dunked in saltwater, lain in the sand still sopping wet, slept on without combing it- resulting in sandy, grimy feeling, tangled hair. My face was rough because I had slept on the sand, and it had made an imprint on my cheek. Nobody looked in any shape to be woken up. I was left wallowing in a sad, lonely feeling, watching the sunrise. Seabirds cried out plainly overhead, and the salient scent of salt brought a watering in my mouth for food- particularly seafood. I resigned to the thought of no food for a long while. I turned to look at the un-ascertained land behind us. It was an ascending, gentle slope, with spring green, short grasses covering it, wildflowers grew here and there, and crepe-myrtle bushes along with small, gnarly trees covering some of the hillside, so that it was almost a forest, but not quite. It looked serene and irenic*, and I thought that if I lived in Crete, which I would not, I would live here, and have a view of the sea. But then I thought, No, I wouldn’t live here. I would live in Athens. Just like I did before I got taken. I got up suddenly because I had just made up my mind of something- I was not going to just scrutinize the hill from here. I wanted to actually go on it and explore. So carefully, without waking anyone, I stood, brushed off the sand from my clothes and started off the beach. When my feet hit the soft grasses, I let out a small sigh of satisfaction. This was the first thing I had walked on that actually felt pleasing to my feet since the time I had jumped out my window, onto the grass to meet Percy the morning of the burnings. Since then, I had only been on the ship barefoot, and the sand, which was course and pebbly, unlike the soft, satiny sand at home. The plucked a small white wildflower called a Columbine out of the earth and tucked it behind my ear, feeling like this was the first chance I had been given in a long time to be by myself and just…relax. The sleep I had just had had rejuvenated me, and I felt a new kind of energy spring up, something that seemed to come from the grass itself. I let the breeze tickle my face and breathed deeply. I walked in the meadow until the waves could not be heard any longer, and the birdsong became louder. I soaked up the warming sun which was still low in the sky, having barely cleared the horizon, and even climbed a tree or two. I discovered a small pond where pond lilies flowered and small minnows swam idly. I used the smooth, still water like a beauty treatment. I first wet my hair in the clean freshwater, waited for it to become still again, then used it as a mirror to comb out my wet hair with my fingers, braid them both in fishtails, weaving in Columbine as I went, just for an unnecessary touch of extra vanity. I splashed my face with water and scrubbed it with a soft lamb’s ear leaf I found nearby. I collected a thick moss of the trees and dunked it in water so I could wring out water all over my body. I rubbed my feet redundantly in the soft grasses to get all the dirt and grime off. I even took a long, thin, tough blade of grass and went between my teeth with it to floss. And lastly, I took a pond lily and replaced the Columbine behind my ear with it. I breathed a sigh of relief, because I had not felt this clean in days. Then, I spied a bush of berries I recognized as something we ate often at home. I picked all the ripe berries off the bush, and found I had much more then I could eat on my own. I tasted just one, and found they were ripe, sweet, juicy and flavorful. These were something the others would enjoy very much. So I gathered them again off the ground and dumped them in my chiton so it acted like a bag, and carefully traveled back to the beach with them bundled in my chiton. Nobody was awake even yet, so I set them gently on the grass, and went to look for more things to eat. I scoured the area for anything of use. I was hoping on finding another berry bush bursting with fruits just like the first, but instead I lucked out completely. I was walking along a different route to look for bushes of berries, when I happened to glance up and see small, deep purple fruits hanging from the tree above my head. Figs! I couldn’t believe my luck. I had some difficulty climbing the tree since it didn’t have very many low-down limbs or handholds, but I climbed a neighboring tree and managed to climb from one tree to the other by linking branches. I knocked the figs off so they fell to the ground, and when I was certain I had all of them, I collected them in the same way I had the berries, and found I could barely carry all of them. But by hook or by crook, I carried them all back and dumped them next to the berries. There! Now we had a decent-sized meal. At least one fig per person, and a handful of berries for each, maybe even more. Everyone remained asleep, so I ended up yelling out over the crowd,